Polysaccharides such as cellulose ethers and guar gum, etc., are known in a wide variety of applications for food, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, oil drilling, coatings, construction, graphic arts, etc. Because these naturally occurring polymers have high molecular weights, it has often been desirable to employ a oxidative treatment to degrade the polymer. Degradative polysaccharide treatments and low viscosity polymers are described in Canadian patent 839,258, British patent specification 1,139,637 and U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,316,982; 4,838,944; 4,874,854; and 4,894,448.
Yet in spite of what was known in the art and the existence of a continuing need for new and useful aqueous polysaccharide compositions, it remained for the present invention to provide such novel compositions along with a novel process for producing these compositions.